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Sunday, 14 August 2016

Jim's column 13.8.2016

The new season is up
and running and the Sky Blues again failed to break the Swindon
hoodoo in the opening league game last Saturday. For the fifth year
running at the County Ground City conceded a late goal and it was
decisive. There can be few City fans around who saw the team last win
a league game there back in 1960.

On Tuesday evening, by
beating Portsmouth 3-2 after extra time, the team won a League Cup
tie for the first time in four years after successive first round
exits to Leyton Orient, Cardiff City and Rochdale. It was also the
first time that manager Tony Mowbray had won a Cup tie of any sort
since he became manager of the club eighteen months ago. Last season
he saw the Sky Blues bow out in the first round of all three
competitions. That last League Cup victory, over Birmingham City in
2012 was also a 3-2 win after extra time. The Sky Blues no face
Norwich City away in the second round in what will be the club's
first meeting in the competition since its inauguration in 1960.
There have been nine FA Cup meetings between the club with honours
even with three wins each and three drawn ties. The clubs also met in
the now extinct Full Members Cup in 1986-87 when the Canaries, with
home advantage won 2-1 with Kevin Drinkell netting both Norwich goals
after David Phillips had scored a penalty. Coincidentally both
scorers later joined the other club.

The attendance at the
Ricoh Arena on Tuesday was a disappointing 4,976 and was the lowest
for a competitive game at the stadium – the previous lowest was
5,437 for the Burton Albion Football League Trophy game in 2012. It
was not however the club's smallest home crowd in the competition,
that was recorded at Sixfields two years ago when 1,352 watched City
lose to Cardiff City. There have been quite a number of sub-5,000
crowds for City away ties in the League Cup with the smallest as
follows:

1,904 v Dagenham &
Redbridge (2012-13)

1,986 v Rochdale
(2015-16)

2,288 v Rochdale
(1991-92)

2,633 v Scarborough
(1992-93)

2,871 v Leyton Orient
(2013-14)

The League Cup
attendances crowds were poor all around the country with under 3,000
at Walsall and Shrewsbury on a night that saw 10 Championship sides
defeated by clubs from a lower division and a number of fancied
League One sides (including Sheffield United, Bolton and Charlton)
also exit the competition.

Steve Bell communicates
with me regularly about the club's games against overseas clubs.
During the summer he asked me about City's game against Brazilian
club Santos which took place during the club's 1972 tour of South
East Asia. The game was the final one of a five-game, three-week trip
that included two games in South Korea and two in Japan. I was able
to provide him with some facts about the game. It was played on 13
June 1972 in Bangkok and the result was a 2-2 draw. Quintin Young and
Alan Green scored for City with the famous Pele (with a penalty) and
Edu netting for Santos in front of a 32,000 crowd. I don't have the
line ups for either club nor any other information. If anybody can
provide more details please let me know and I will pass them on to
Steve.

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About Me

I have supported Coventry City FC since my first visit to Highfield Road in 1962. I am the club's official historian and have a regular column in the Coventry Telegraph. Here I would like to enable my readers who can't buy the paper to access my columns and comment.